Dal y Mellt will be the first Welsh language drama to appear on Netflix.
The streaming behemoth has purchased the rights to the S4C blockbuster crime drama, which follows a group of misfits who band together for a robbery.
Dal y Mellt, which translates as Catch The Lightning and is based on Iwan ‘Iwcs’ Roberts’ debut novel, was released in October as a box set on S4C Clic and BBC iPlayer.
The drama will air in six hour-long episodes beginning in April 2023, and the streaming giant believes that it will help ‘promote and protect the Welsh language’ through the series.
The show takes place in Cardiff, Soho, Porthmadog, and Holyhead, and Netflix’s Benjamin King has claimed that programming filmed in – and about – Wales ‘travels exceptionally well’ to global audiences.
‘I think within the UK, Wales has consistently been the location for many of our most well-known and best loved shows.’ he said before the Welsh Affairs Committee at Westminster.
‘Most people are familiar with Sex Education and many people know as well that certain scenes from The Crown were filmed in Wales, but we also have a suite of other content that was made in Wales for example, our film Havoc, which is the largest feature film ever produced there.’
Carbo, a young auto thief played by Gwon Morris Jones, becomes involved with a questionable family in North Wales.
Roberts, who had featured in the Welsh serial opera Pobl y Cwm, adapted his own novel for the small screen, and the series premiered in the autumn of 2022, drawing comparisons to BBC’s Peaky Blinders and Guy Ritchie heist films.
‘To sell a Welsh-language only series to a major global streamer like Netflix sets out our ambition to take Welsh talent and language to the world and creates further exciting opportunities for S4C.’ said S4C CEO Sian Doyle in a statement.
Netflix’s acquisition comes at a time when there is a growing desire for foreign language programming, with Nordic noir dramas The Killing and The Bridge doing well, and South Korean series Squid Game taking the world by storm when it debuted on the platform in 2021.
Wales is also proving popular, with Amazon’s documentary series Welcome To Wrexham, which follows Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s acquisition of the football club.
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